Occupational Health and Safety Act

1

In this Act,

(a) “administrative penalty” means an administrative penalty required to be paid under section 44(1);

(b) “appeal body” means the appeal body referred to in section 45(1);

(c) “collective agreement” means an agreement in writing between an employer or an employers’ organization and a bargaining agent containing terms or conditions of employment, and may include one or more documents containing one or more agreements;

(d) “competent” in relation to a person means adequately qualified, suitably trained and with sufficient experience to safely perform work without supervision or with only a minimal degree of supervision;

(e) “construction work site” means a work site where any of the following activities are conducted:

(i) the building, demolition, repair, alteration, extension or renovation of a structure;

(ii) site development or building and repair of roads, highways, pipelines, sewage systems, drainage systems, electrical transmission lines or systems or telecommunication transmission lines or systems;

(iii) digging, working in or filling a trench or excavation;

(iv) land clearing, earth moving, grading, boring, drilling, abrasive blasting or concreting;

(f) “contracting employer” means a person, partnership or group of persons who, through a contract, an agreement or ownership, directs the activities of one or more employers involved in work at a work site;

(g) “custodian” means a person defined as a custodian under the Health Information Act;

(h) “Director” means a person appointed under section 26 as a Director;

(i) “Director of Medical Services” means a physician appointed under section 26 as a Director of Medical Services;

(j) “disciplinary action” means any action or threat of action by a person that does or would adversely affect a worker with respect to any terms or conditions of employment;

(k) “employer” means

(i) a person who is self‑employed in an occupation,

(ii) a person who employs or engages one or more workers, including a person who employs or engages workers from a temporary staffing agency,

(iii) a person designated by an employer as the employer’s representative, or

(iv) a director or officer of a corporation or a person employed by the employer who oversees the occupational health and safety of the workers employed by the corporation or employer;

(l) “equipment” means any mechanical or non‑mechanical article or device, and includes any machine, tool, appliance, apparatus, implement or other thing used in the carrying out of work, but does not include the personal property owned by an individual unless that property is used in the carrying out of work;

(m) “family member”, in relation to a shareholder, sole proprietor or partner, means

(i) the spouse or adult interdependent partner of the shareholder, sole proprietor or partner, or

(ii) whether by blood, marriage or adoption or by virtue of an adult interdependent relationship, a child, parent, grandparent, sibling, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew or first cousin of the shareholder, sole proprietor or partner of the shareholder’s, sole proprietor’s or partner’s spouse or adult interdependent partner,

and includes any other person prescribed by the OHS Code to be a family member;

(n) “harassment” means any single incident or repeated incidents of objectionable or unwelcome conduct, comment, bullying or action by a person that the person knows or ought reasonably to know will or would cause offence or humiliation to a worker, or adversely affects the worker’s health and safety, and includes

(i) conduct, comment, bullying or action because of race, religious beliefs, colour, physical disability, mental disability, age, ancestry, place of origin, marital status, source of income, family status, gender, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation, and

(ii) a sexual solicitation or advance,

but excludes any reasonable conduct of an employer or supervisor in respect of the management of workers or a work site;

(o) “harmful substance” means a substance that, because of its properties, application or presence, creates or could create a danger, including but not limited to a chemical, biological or radiological hazard, to the health and safety of a worker exposed to it;

(p) “hazard” means a situation, condition or thing that may be dangerous to health and safety;

(q) “hazardous occupation” means an occupation in which a person works with asbestos, silica, coal dust or lead;

(r) “hazardous work site” means a blasting area and an area of a work site where there is a reasonable chance that the airborne concentration of asbestos, silica, coal dust or lead exceeds or may exceed the occupational exposure limit for one or more of the substances under the OHS Code;

(s) “health and safety program” means a co‑ordinated system of procedures, processes and other measures that is designed to be implemented by organizations in order to promote continuous improvement in occupational health and safety;

(t) “health and safety representative” means a worker representative designated under section 14;

(u) “health services provider” means

(i) a health services provider under the Health Information Act, or

(ii) an individual or organization that reviews, interprets or assesses in an occupational setting

(A) results from any test performed on a bodily substance from an individual worker or group of workers,

(B) results from medical, health or biological monitoring of an individual worker or group of workers, or

(C) results from medical or health surveillance of an individual worker or group of workers;

(v) “joint health and safety committee” means a committee established under section 13;

(w) “licence” means a licence, certificate or permit issued under this Act;

(x) “manufacturer’s specifications” means the written specifications, instructions or recommendations, if any, of the manufacturer of equipment, personal protective equipment, harmful substance or explosive, that describes how the equipment, personal protective equipment, harmful substance or explosive are to be used, erected, installed, assembled, started, operated, handled, stored, stopped, calibrated, adjusted, maintained, repaired, dismantled or disposed of, including a manufacturer’s instructions, operating or maintenance manual or drawings for the equipment, personal protective equipment, harmful substance or explosive;

(y) “mine” means a mine designated in the OHS Code as a mine;

(z) “mine site” means a mine site designated in the OHS Code as a mine site;

(aa) “Minister” means the Minister determined under section 16 of the Government Organization Act as the Minister responsible for this Act;

(bb) “notifiable disease” means a disease or a state of ill health designated by a Director of Medical Services as a notifiable disease;

(cc) “occupation” means every occupation, employment, business, calling or pursuit over which the Legislature has jurisdiction, except

(i) farming and ranching operations that are specified in the OHS Code and in respect of which

(A) no wages, as defined in the Employment Standards Code, are paid to persons for the performance of farming or ranching work, or

(B) wages, as defined in the Employment Standards Code, are paid only to the following persons for the performance of farming or ranching work:

(I) shareholders of a corporation engaged in a farming or ranching operation of which all shareholders are family members of the same family;

(II) family members of a shareholder of a corporation engaged in a farming or ranching operation of which all shareholders are family members of the same family;

(III) family members of a sole proprietor engaged in a farming or ranching operation;

(IV) family members of a partner in a partnership engaged in a farming or ranching operation where all partners are family members of the same family,

and

(ii) work in, to or around a private dwelling or any land used in connection with the dwelling that is performed by an occupant or owner who lives in the private dwelling, unless

(A) the work is performed for an employer who is not an occupant or owner who lives in the private dwelling, or

(B) the work is performed by a person who lives in the private dwelling and is employed by or on behalf of an occupant or owner who lives in the private dwelling;

(dd) “occupational disease” means a disease or state of ill health arising out of and directly related to an occupation;

(ee) “officer” means a Director or a person appointed under section 26 as an occupational health and safety officer;

(ff) “OHS Code” means the OHS Code made by the Minister under section 61(1), including any secondary code adopted or incorporated as referred to in section 61(2) that is relevant to the circumstances in question;

(gg) “oil and gas work site” means a work site where any of the following activities are conducted:

(i) oil and gas development, production, refining and processing;

(ii) the drilling and mining of, completion, recompletion or remedial treatment of an oil or gas well;

(iii) the supplementary operation performed or service provided that is necessary to the drilling of an oil or gas well;

(iv) work performed with a mobile workover or completion service rig;

(v) geophysical operations in relation to oil and gas;

(vi) construction and upgrading of oil and gas infrastructure;

(vii) oil and gas pipeline construction and operation;

(viii) oil and gas site abandonment, remediation and reclamation;

(ix) bitumen and in situ heavy oil recovery;

(hh) “owner” means the person who is registered under the Land Titles Act as the owner of the land on which work is being carried out or may be carried out, or the person who enters into an agreement with the owner to be responsible for meeting the owner’s obligations under this Act, the regulations and the OHS Code, but does not include a person who occupies land or premises used as a private residence unless a business, trade or profession is carried on in that premises;

(ii) “personal protective equipment” means a thing used or worn by a person for protection of that person from health or safety hazards that may exist at a work site;

(jj) “police officer” means a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or a member of a municipal police service or any other police service established under the Police Act;

(kk) “previous Act” means the Occupational Health and Safety Act, SA 2017 cO-2.1;

(ll) “prime contractor” means the prime contractor for a work site referred to in section 10;

(mm) “service provider” means a person who provides training, consultation, testing, program development, or other services in respect of any occupation or work site;

(nn) “supervisor” means a person who has charge of a work site or authority over a worker;

(oo) “supplier” means a person who sells, rents, leases, erects, installs or provides any tools, appliances, personal protective equipment or equipment or who sells or otherwise provides any harmful substance or explosive to be used by a worker in respect of any occupation or work site;

(pp) “temporary staffing agency” means a person who retains workers and deploys or facilitates the placement of those workers with other employers;

(qq) “the regulations” means the regulations under section 60;

(rr) “violence”, whether at a work site or work-related, means the threatened, attempted or actual conduct of a person that causes or is likely to cause physical or psychological injury or harm, and includes domestic or sexual violence;

(ss) “welfare” means the conditions or facilities, in or near a work site, provided for the feeding, rest, hygiene or sanitary requirements of a worker;

(tt) “worker” means a person engaged in an occupation, including a person who performs or supplies services for no monetary compensation for an organization or employer, but does not include

(i) a student in learning activities conducted by or within an educational institution for which no compensation is paid to the student, or

(ii) except for the purpose of section 5(1)(a) and (b), the following persons engaged in a farming and ranching operation specified in the OHS Code:

(A) a person to whom no wages, as defined in the Employment Standards Code, are paid for the performance of farming or ranching work;

(B) a person referred to in clause (cc)(i)(B)(I) to (IV) to whom wages, as defined in the Employment Standards Code, are paid for the performance of farming or ranching work;

(uu) “work site” means a location where a worker is, or is likely to be, engaged in any occupation and includes any vehicle or mobile equipment used by a worker in an occupation.

2

The purposes of this Act are

(a) the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, psychological and social well‑being of workers,

(b) to prevent work site incidents, injuries, illnesses and diseases,

(c) the protection of workers from factors and conditions adverse to their health and safety, and

(d) to ensure that all workers have

(i) the right to be informed of work site hazards and the means to eliminate or control those hazards,

(ii) the right to meaningful participation in health and safety activities pertaining to their work and work site, including the ability to express health and safety concerns,

(iii) the right to refuse dangerous work, and

(iv) the ability to work without being subject to disciplinary action for exercising a right or fulfilling a duty imposed by this Act, the regulations or the OHS Code.